Envelopes for gramophone records



W. L. RAND ENVELOPES FOR GRAMOPHONE RECORDS Oct. 8, 1968 Filed Dec. 8, 1966 United States Patent 3,404,830 ENVELOPES FOR GRAMOPHONE RECORDS Walter Leslie Rand, Gerrards Cross, England, assignor to Electrical & Musical Industries Limited, Hayes, Middlesex, England, a British company Filed Dec. 8, 1966, Ser. No. 600,177 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Dec. 15, 1965, 53,143/ 65 5 Claims. (Cl. 229-68) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This specification describes a gramophone record in a sleeve of thin pliable material which is slightly tapered at one or both ends towards the sides to facilitate its insertion sideways into the outer jacket. The tapering may be linear or curved and a cut-away may be provided at the centre of the open end of the sleeve to facilitate extraction therefrom of the record.

This invention relates to envelopes for gramophone records.

For the transit and storage of gramophone records, especially of the long playing type, it is usual to place the record in an inner envelope and to place the inner envelope with the record inside in a relatively stiff cardboard case or outer envelope. The inner envelope is thin and pliable, being for example made of thin paper and perhaps having a lining of smooth thin plastic and its main function is to protect the grooved surface of the record from abrasion and dust. Both the inner and outer envelopes are open at one end and to secure maximum protection from dust the inner envelope containing the record should be inserted sideways into the outer envelope so that after insertion the open end of the outer envelope is adjacent a closed side of the inner envelope. In practice it is sometimes -difiicult to insert the inner envelope containing the record into the outer envelope since the inner envelope tends to crease, and this difliculty is significant if an autoinatic machine is used in the factory for inserting the records in inner and outer envelopes.

An object of the present invention is to provide an improved envelope for a gramophone record which is especially adapted to facilitate its insertion as the inner envelope, with the record inside, into the outer envelope.

According to the present invention there is provided an envelope for containing a gramaphone record and for insertion within an outer jacket, the envelope being approximately square, having two ends and two sides, being open at one end and having walls of thin pliable material which are continuous along the ends and sides but are tapered gradually to both corners adjacent to the open end so as to reduce the lengths of the two sides by an amount at least an order smaller than the greatest length of a wall between the two sides, thereby to facilitate the insertion of the envelope into the jacket.

Preferably, in accordance with the invention the other or closed end of the envelope is also tapered from the central region of the envelope to the sides thereof.

In order that the present invention may be clearly understood and readily carried into effect it will now be described with reference to the single figure of the accompanying drawing which illustrates one example of an inner envelope for a long playing gramophone record according to the invention.

As illustrated in the drawing, the envelope is made of paper which may if desired have a lining of a smooth thin plastic material such as polyethylene, the envelope being approximately square and having an open end 1, a closed end 2 and two closed sides 3 and 4. The open end of the envelope is curved or tapered so that the height AB of the envelope at the centre is greater than the height A'B' at each side. The top centre part of one wall 4 is, in addition cut away so that the centre part 5 of the other wall projects as a lip above the edge 6 of the wall where the cut was made. This facilitates the opening of the envelope for the insertion of the gramophone record, especially if the insertion is eliected by an automatic machine. The edge 6 may be slightly concave.

In the example which is illustrated in the drawing, the closed end 2 of the envelope is straight, but it may, and preferably is, tapered as indicated by the dotted lines 7. This further reduces the height of the envelope at the sides compared with the height at the centre. The curvature or tapering of the ends of the envelope, as described, is not such as to expose any part of the grooved surface of a record, contained in the envelope. Nevertheless the insertion of the inner envelope containing the gramophone record into the outer envelope in the correct way, that is sideways, is facilitated even when the width of the outer envelope is, as normally, ony slightly greater than the height of the inner envelope.

The envelope is formed with the customary central openings or windows 10 although these may be omitted if desired.

The envelope illustrated can be made in any suitable way, for example by folding a suitably shaped blank to form the closed lower end of the envelope and thereafter closing the sides of the envelope by means of flaps such as indicated by the dotted lines 8 in the drawing. This method is applicable if the lower end of the envelope is straight. If it is desired that the lower end be tapered as indicated by the dotted line 7, this can be achieved in any suitable way, the closure of the lower end being effected in this case as by an adhesive, or by, a heat sealing if the envelope has an inner plastic lining. Preferably the tapering of the lower end of the envelope is linear to facilitate closure of the lower end, but the lower end may be curved if desired in the same way as described herein with reference to the top end. Moreover, the lower end of the envelope may be only partly closed, for example, only in the straight central region, the remainder of the lower end, that is to say the tapering portions, being unclosed.

What I claim is:

1. An envelope for containing a gramophone record and for insertion within an outer jacket, the envelope being approximately square, having two ends and two sides, being open at one end and having walls of thin pliable material which are continuous along the ends and sides but are tapered gradually to both corners adjacent to the open end so as to reduce the lengths of the two sides by an amount at least an order smaller than the greatest length of a wall between the two sides, thereby to facilitate the insertion of the envelope into the jacket.

2. An envelope according to claim 1 wherein along the open end the centre of the edge of one wall projects beyond the centre of the other wall to facilitate removal of a record from the envelope.

3. An envelope according to claim 1 in which both corners adjacent to the other end are also cut off shallowly so as to reduce further the lengths of the two sides by an amount at least an order smaller than the greatest l References Cited length of a wall between the two sides.

4; An' envelope according to claim 3 in which said FOREIGN PATENTS other end is wholly closed. 555,632 7/ 1932 Germany.

5. An envelope according to claim 3 in which said 5 571,699 6/1958 Italy, other end is closed along a central portion and is open along the cut-01f portions. DAVID M. BOCKENEK, Primary Examiner. 

